234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



sumably spring count) for 1832, given at 86,633. 

 These figures have been gathered by law by the as- 

 sessors of the various to vnships, perhaps the only 

 instance of official Stat reports of this kind ever 

 published in the bee papers. 



There are reasons for believing that these figures 

 are below the mark, and yet the spring count for 

 Illinois, in the present table, must be multiplied by 

 15 to make it equal the assessor's reports. After 

 multiplying reports from other SI ates by 2, 5, 10, or 

 20 to bring them on a level with 111 nois, then multi- 

 plying again by 15 we may get at something like the 

 truth. C. C. Miller, 



April, 1883. Chairman Statistical Com. 



KEEPIINO UP BROOD -REARING DUR- 

 ING A DEARTH OF HONEY. 



SOME IMPORTANT FACTS IN THE MATTER. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I have been keeping bees for 

 the past thirteen years. The last ten it has 

 — been my principal business. I had 240 colonies 

 last fall; lost but one in wintering, probably smoth- 

 ered. My crop of last season was 10,000 lbs., TOOO of 

 which was comb honej'. I am aware that this is by 

 no means a large yield for the number of colonies; 

 but when account is taken of the fact, that in this 

 locality we get no clover nor basswood honey, it may 

 be considered a fair crop. 



And now I have a few thoughts to present to the 

 readers of Gleanings, upon a point which I believe 

 bee journals have-not overdone. In this place, as a 

 rule, we get no surplus honey until about the first 

 of August. I presume the same is true of a large 

 part of Southern Illinois, as well as in many of the 

 recently settled localities of the West. 



Our colonies get strong enough by the middle of 

 May to swarm, at about which time our spring 

 bloom fails, then for six weeks or more these large 

 colonies of bees have to depend mainly on their rap- 

 idly diminishing stores. In small or moderate-sized 

 hives they often run out of honey, and cease to 

 raise brood, and even throw out the uncapped 

 larvae. Not a great many colonies die of starvation; 

 but if left to themselves they are very weak at the 

 beginning of the honey season. By noting the time 

 that elapses between the commencing of brood-rear- 

 ing in the spring, and the gathering of the first sur- 

 plus honey in August, it will be seen that a good 

 part of their spring stores are consumed in the rear- 

 ing and feeding of bees that will finally die of old 

 age before they have had an opportunity to gather a 

 pound of surplus. 



Just how to remedy the difficulty under which we 

 labor is therefore an important question. The most 

 obvious and immediately helpful remedy for starv- 

 ing bees is generous feeding. For summer feeding 

 I have found grape or corn sugar, placed on top of 

 the frames, the most economical and convenient ar- 

 ticle. Another remedy, not so immediately active, 

 but likely to be more permanently helpful, is a liber- 

 al sowing of white-clover seed in pastures and road- 

 sides in your neighborhood. I am expecting that 

 my house apiary will receive some benefit from this 

 treatment the present season. 



Now, friend Root, I very well know what remedy 

 you would prescribe for the case in hand. It would 

 be to sell the surplus bees by the pound, instead of 

 buying sugar for them. I tried this plan last season, 

 but my advertisement has not resulted in the sale 



of a single pound of bees. So I concluded that this 

 remedy, while very pleasant to take, can not be de- 

 pended upon for general use, though I intend trying 

 it once more. 



There is another remedy for the difficulty, that 

 suggests itself to my mind, though I have not yet 

 fairly tested it, and it is the one of which I wish par- 

 ticularly to speak. It is to retard brood-rearing in 

 the spring by confining the queen to about two 

 frames, until near the close of our dearth of honey, 

 and thus save the queen from unnecessary exhaus- 

 tion, and the stores from being consumed in rearing 

 and feeding of useless bees. 



I believe that division-boards that will only permit 

 bees to pass under them will be sufficient to keep 

 the queen at her place. Ifnot, tne perforated met- 

 al plates certainly would. I expect to try this re- 

 tarding process in my Clay county apiary, and to 

 some extent in my home apiary. 



Farina, Fayette Co., 111. T. P. Andrews. 



Thank you, friend A. I shonld by all 

 means try to avoid loss during the months 

 you mention. And were it not for the time 

 it takes to get clover started, I should by all 

 means advise the clover, as clover honey 

 stands at the head of all honies. AVhile 

 waiting for the clover to grow, I should by 

 all means feed ; and for feed in the fore part 

 of the season, under the circumstances you 

 mention, I am inclined to think I should use 

 the much-abused grape sugar. Where a 

 poor quality of maple sugar can be bought 

 for 7 or 8 cts. per lb., perhaps that might 

 answer just as well. I presume you have not 

 yet hidlt up a trade in bees by the pound. 

 With us this trade has assumed such propor- 

 tions that we can hardly keep a pound of 

 bees in the hive ; and even on this 17th day 

 of April, if we filled our orders we should 

 hardly have a bee left. By all means keep 

 them going by some means or other. 



FOUL. BROOD. 



ARE WE FULLY AWARE OF THE DANGER THAT 

 THREATENS US ALL? 



l^yRlHE inclosed card of Prof. Cook speaks for itself. 

 Jl Please publish it in your ne.xt number of 

 — ' Gleanings. I expect to be convinced of the 

 fact, that brother Jones never had foul brood in his 

 apiary, otherwise one of his boys would never be 

 able (or have been able) to cure his colonies in such 

 an easy manner. Brother Jones would have an 

 abundance of foul brood now, which, indeed, would 

 be equal to a calamity to the interest of bee-keepers 

 in this country. Ihopebrother Jones will be spared. 

 But he was honest in his belief that he had foul 

 brood. There are no two ways about it. I am sorry 

 that Prof. Cook can not give a fair test of the mat- 

 ter. Unless our friends are aware of the insidious 

 character of that disease, foul brood will keep 

 spreading in this country, slowly but surely. Ear- 

 nest and scientific men in the old country have de- 

 voted much time and labor to the matter, without 

 being able to arrest the progress of the disease, and 

 we who have it in our poweryet to arrest the spread 

 are indifferent, consoling ourselves with the idea 

 that little boys can finish that job. I wish, indeed, 

 you could name some good reliable party who could 

 give us some facts, substantiated by his own soien- 



